Stella, who recognised in this sally an attempt to find out whether she was going to marry Dr Fielding or not, merely smiled and agreed, and firmly turned the conversation on to Poultry. She sallied forth presently in her car to do the marketing, and returned shortly before noon to find her mother just coming downstairs from her room. “How's the invalid?” Stella inquired.
“Asleep,” Mrs Matthews replied. “I peeped in a moment ago, but she was sound, so I didn't disturb her.”
Miss Matthews did not come down to luncheon, so Mrs Matthews, who with the passing of every hour her sister-in-law had spent in bed had become more martyrlike, sighed, and told Stella to run up and ask her aunt if she was going to get up, or if she would like a tray sent to her room. “I must say, I do think it's just a little inconsiderate of Harriet to elect to be ill at a moment when she must know that it's all I can do to keep going without having all her work thrust on to my shoulders,” she said.
Stella, who knew the processes of her mother's mind too well to waste her breath in pointing out that it was she, and not Mrs Matthews, who had performed Harriet's duties that morning, merely winked at Guy, and went off to visit her aunt.
There was no answer to her gentle tap on the door, so after waiting for a moment Stella softly turned the handle, and went in.
The curtains had been drawn across the windows to shut out the light, and the room was dim. Miss Matthews was lying on her side with her eyes closed, and did not stir. Stella went to the bedside, wondering whether to wake her or not. It struck her all at once that Miss Matthews looked very ill; she bent over her, laying her hand cautiously on the slack one that rested on the sheet.
It was not hot with fever, but on the contrary oddly chilly. Stella recoiled with a sobbing gasp of fright and shock. With her eyes fixed on her aunt's motionless form she backed to the door, her knees shaking under her, and pulled it open, and called: “Mother! Guy! Oh, come here, quickly! Quickly!”
Terror vibrated in her voice; it brought Guy up the stairs two at a time. “What's up?” he demanded. “Good God, what's the matter?”
“Aunt Harriet!” Stella managed to say. “Aunt Harriet… !”
He stared at her white face for an instant, and then thrust past her into Miss Matthews' room.